This week in Cafe Society, Gretchen Kurtz reviewed one of a handful of new ampersand-branded restaurants in Denver, Olive & Finch, where she enjoyed some of the French-inspired fare — but found the fast-casual set-up a little too casual. In Chef and Tell, Chef DJ Nagle of Humboldt discusses geeking…
On Thursday, June 26, 24 local restaurants will battle it out for taco supremacy in the inaugural Top Taco Denver showdown, a benefit for the Colorado Restaurant Association’s Education Foundation ProStart scholarship program. The event, which unfolds in Sculpture Park, located just behind the Denver Center for the Performing Arts,…
On Wednesday night, seventeen chefs from across Denver convened on the patio of Elway’s Cherry Creek for the Hot Rocks Griller Challenge, an annual benefit — and one of the best food-related events of the year — for the Denver Health Foundation’s male-based programs. The chefs, all of whom created…
This restaurant has gone through several changes since it first opened, morphing from a vast space with a center island of prepared foodstuffs to a full-fledged restaurant that’s feeding enthusiastic crowds. And the beef-and-onion samosas, served with lemon wedges and a duo of tamarind and cilantro chutneys, are a definite…
Three years ago, sausage czar Jim Pittenger opened Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs, his brick-and-mortar on Larimer Street that followed several years of unrivaled success pimping game-changing dogs from a long-standing cart on the 16th Street Mall. And now Pittenger, whose famous fat wieners slapped with cream cheese and Coke-soaked onions…
After fifteen years the Hard Rock Cafe was looking like a fossil, especially as new restaurants — Lime, Grimaldi’s, 5280 Burgers — joined the lineup at the Denver Pavilions. So this link in the national chain just went through a major upgrade, a floor-to-ceiling makeover of the 11,000 square foot…
Gustavo Arellano, author of Ask a Mexican and a big fan of Den-Mex cuisine, has burritos on the brain these days, “and not just because of the whole pendejada involving Chipotle putting short stories by authors on its cups and bags…none of whom are Latinos,” he says. “While America loves…
Who says that suburban restaurants have to bow down to the chain-ganged masses? In the case of this further afield restaurant, which recently boasted a plate of fantastic arancini, coupled with head-on shrimp, the kitchen turns out terrific foodstuffs that make even city folk leave their sheltered boundaries. Can you…
When Olive & Finchopened in December, the French café-inspired eatery came as a surprise to fans of chef Mary Nguyen’s previous restaurants, Parallel Seventeen and Street Kitchen Asian Bistro. At Olive & Finch, she traded pho for prosciutto, black bean stir fries for breakfast burritos, and tuna rolls for tartines…
DJ Nagle Humboldt: Farm, Fish, Wine 1700 Humboldt Street 303-813-1700 humboldtrestaurant.com This is part two of my interview with DJ Nagle, executive chef of Humboldt: Farm, Fish, Wine; the first installment of our chat ran yesterday. Most noteworthy meal you’ve ever eaten: When I was a young cook working at…
The World Cup starts today, and to help get you in the spirit — and the spirits — this week we posted our list of six brilliant places to watch the World Cup. But some readers found our roster less than brilliant. Where was The Armoury? The Abbey? Conor O’Neill’s…
Hungry this morning? The Kolache Cabin is now camped at the intersection of Alameda and Santa Fe, where it sells a wide variety of breakfast and lunch pastries that take the traditional kolache on quite a trip. See also: Ten food trucks to follow in Denver this summer…
Restaurateur Mary Nguyen fashioned Olive & Finch after the traiteurs, or prepared-food purveyors, she encountered while traveling in France. Though not everything on the menu is French, some, like the poached-pear tartine, took our restaurant critic back to her own European travels. What else does the restaurant have to offer?…
Even the co-owner of Boulder’s best Chinese restaurant knows his limitations. “I knew that I had to come clean with a secret: I’m not Italian,” quips Edwin Zoe, who, along with his mother, owns Zoe Ma Ma, a stellar Chinese restaurant in downtown Boulder and, up until quite recently, Radda…
The perfect deli sandwich, says Frank Bonanno, goes something like this: “a ton of meat, sliced to order and paper-thin; shredded iceberg lettuce; paper-thin, sliced tomatoes; and a slightly crunchy, soft and toothsome hoagie roll.” That’s the kind of sandwich that Bonanno, who will open Salt & Grinder, a New…
The guy who cooks the food at this diminutive Mexican joint always has a twinkle in his eye, and his chalkboard of south-of-the-border eats, especially the al pastor with pineapple, always turns a good day into a great day. Awesome housemade horchata, too. Can you guess where I’m eating? Special…
DJ Nagle Humboldt: Farm, Fish, Wine 1700 Humboldt Street 303-813-1700 humboldtrestaurant.com This is part one of my interview with DJ Nagle, executive chef of Humboldt: Farm, Fish, Wine; the second installment of our chat will run tomorrow. Even though it wasn’t a requirement, DJ Nagle always sported a tie when…
For more than a year, Mark Antonation ate his way up Federal Boulevard. With that journey done, he’ll now explore different cuisines from around the globe right here in metro Denver, one month at a time, in Ethniche. Driving to Aurora to eat Ethiopian cuisine seemed a little counterintuitive, at…
Denver has been rolling in doughnuts lately, with new Dunkin’ Donuts outlets popping up all over town and the first out-of-state store of the Portland-based Voodoo Doughnut making magic on East Colfax. And this Friday, Glazed & Confuzed will finally open its brick-and-mortar spot on Leetsdale. That, coupled with last…
If you journey to the far edge of RiNo at 3800 Walnut Street, you’ll find a cozy sports bar with an awesome, dog-friendly patio:Jake’s Food & Spirits. This watering hole has built up a good community feel over the last couple of years with theme parties for Walking Dead and…
In March, Glaze: the Baumcake Shoppe, a gorgeous Japanese bakery in Congress Park, shuttered, leaving a litany of ardent admirers of the bakery’s macarons and baum cakes starving for news that co-owner Heather Alcott would make a comeback. And she has, collaborating with Wayne Conwell, chef-owner of Sushi Sasa, on…
The small cocktail syllabus at this neighborhood hangout doesn’t require a mixologist and a bag of tricks, but the admittedly sleep-deprived bartender who mixed my cocktail — a concoction of whiskey, berries, lemon and basil — rose to the occasion, making me a strong cocktail was just what the long…
